Looking to travel for a sense of renewal, post the pandemic

Early in the pandemic, she and her husband, a urologist, developed a system for after work, stripping off their scrubs in their garage to protect their 12-year-old daughter and 10-year-old twin sons from the virus. She has gotten used to intubating critically ill COVID-19 patients. She has learned how to delicately use patients’ phones to FaceTime family members so that everyone can say their goodbyes.

“It’s been horrific,” Dr. Reznikova-Steinway, 43, said. “My colleagues and I have come across a lot of death, a lot of horror and a lot of suffering — it’s pretty hard to describe the weight, the awfulness and the mental and physical toll.” In June, Dr. Reznikova-Steinway and her husband will join a group of about a dozen doctors, nurses and their spouses — all of whom will be fully vaccinated — on an eight-night journey to Alaska organised by Boutique Travel Advisors, a luxury travel agency. The itinerary will keep them largely outdoors; they’ll bike, hike and kayak amid the mountains and fjords of the Kenai Peninsula. Beyond needing a vacation, Dr. Reznikova-Steinway said she is hoping to “debrief” with the other health care professionals, many of whom have also been working in emergency rooms around the country.

“There’s no safety net in medicine to discuss how one feels and to be able to share the pain you’ve experienced and seen,” Dr. Reznikova-Steinway said. “But hopefully we can also take some time to laugh and maybe almost pretend like we’re in a different world for a few minutes.” Although in some places case counts are increasing, many parts of the United States and the world are opening up, with vaccination numbers rising and more travellers passing through United States airports than at any other point in the pandemic. As we all emerge from our homes and rub our eyes, some travellers believe that vacations nowadays are about restoration — recovering from all that has happened since last March. Instead of no-holds-barred, blow-out trips designed to exert “revenge” on the year, these deeply personal trips are meant as a salve that will offer some way — large or small — to move on. “Traveling offers the opportunity to escape from our thoughts and feelings we’ve been consumed by over the past year as we quarantined,” said Vaile Wright, a clinical psychologist and senior director of Health Care Innovation at the American Psychological Association. “It provides a much-needed break from the routines we’ve had to establish to survive the stress of the pandemic, and reminds us of all the vast beauty and humanity that exists outside the homes we’ve been isolating in since last March.”

In a January survey of 3,000 travellers from the United States, Canada and several other countries, American Express Travel found that 78 percent of respondents want to travel this year as a way to relieve stress from 2020.

“Clients are telling me that because it has been such a difficult year, and because travel is something that they hold near and dear, finally being able to take that trip they’ve been dreaming about changes their mind-set and outlook,” said Amina Dearmon, a travel adviser based in New Orleans and owner of Perspectives Travel, an affiliate of the travel company SmartFlyer.